Yesterday was a great day. I definitely feel like I'm on an upward spiral. In the spirit of my favorite holiday, let me list the wonderful things in my life:
-my favorite teammate comes back to work today
-I get to run a 5k on my birthday
-I'm joining a just-for-fun 11k tomorrow night (11/11/11) at 11pm
-my pull-ups are kicking ass
-I just wrote out my check for the powerlifting meet (eep!)
-I booked a weekend getaway w/ Hop to celebrate the trifecta of our 10-year dating anniversary, my birthday, and pumping season survival
-nutrition is [currently] very easy, going perfectly
-my recent retail therapy is happy-making (Monday I wore new boots, yesterday a new dress, today new jeans & a Wonder Woman necklace, tomorrow more new boots!)
-I'm seeing & feeling awesome body comp progress
-I've had a couple highly motivating wellness convos lately
-I booked a weekend workout date with Joy that will include barbells
-work is going wonderfully
-thanks to Steve's habit experiment, I literally look down at my belly perhaps once per day, and then I immediately fix my posture to put it back out of sight...hate-free!
-every workout this week has felt totally fucking solid
-I'm making fantastic progress on testing acne reactions
-my 5-week stretch of busy weekends starts now, but is actually looking fun

Basically, my brain is in a good place, and everything is feeding the spiral! I am a happy Hoppe.

Not going well: sleep. The time change is really fucking my shit up. I was awake at 315 yesterday. Not tired-and-couldn't-sleep, just wide awake. Today I woke at 315, but managed to doze off & on until I just got up at 430. UGH!

I currently feel good, energized, no issues, but as the past has indicated that consecutive nights of sleep this low usually precipitates a binge, I'm being very strategic about my nutrition plan. I'm adding in some starches specifically timed to compensate for the sleep and keep my energy level up, and instead of a full-day fast or just low-cal meals, I'm plotting an Eat-Stop-Eat fasting regimen:
-Wednesday eve: skipped eve snack
-Thursday eve: skip eve snack
-Friday: skip breakfast and morning snack
-Saturday: skip breakfast and morning snack
-Sunday: eat normal

Skipping 6 meals/snacks is going to amount to the same calories as a full fast day. This might normally just make me feel deprived on 4 consecutive days, but:
-skipping the eve snacks should be easy since I made an awesome discovery last night! I turned my supplement drink into ice cream! (Recipe to follow.)
-Friday is a tax update class in St Cloud, and Saturday is a Relay for Life round table in Fergus Falls. Since all-out fasting is not an option I want to explain to others, a half-fast should work. Each day will start out feeling like a typical fast day, then I just eat lunch with everyone else and follow my usual eating pattern the rest of the day. easy!

I'm even planning a date night with Hop on Saturday night! Supper & a movie...though don't be too jealous, as the movie will be Transformers, which Netflix has kindly loaned us for the last two months...for $10. Anyway, by skipping a total of 6 meals/snacks, I will have calories banked for a relatively indulgent supper. Can't beat that! I'm thinking ribs. (I'm always thinking ribs.)

Sunday afternoon is really the only chance I'd have for my nutrition to go awry, as I'll be home alone. However, my phrase of the weekend is: "A binge is not inevitable." I'm going to be able to sleep in the next three days, can probably even squeeze in a nap here & there. And hydration is going to be watched with a hawk's eye. Plus, I'm a total nerd who checked out a book about leptin last night, and maybe getting into the scientific-y details will help the logical side of my brain stay in control. I have hope!

About Me

And every day, the world will drag you by the hand, yelling, "This is important! And this is important! And this is important! You need to worry about this! And this! And this!"
And each day, it's up to you to yank your hand back, put it on your heart and say, "No. This is what's important."
--Iain Thomas